STARTING FIVE

1. I Am Sam

Missouri defensive end Michael Sam, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, announces that he is gay. Sam is a senior, meaning that while he did not come out early for the NFL draft a year ago, he is coming out of the closet ahead of the NFL draft this year. He would be the first active openly gay NFL player, unless that kicker from Willamette University is drafted ahead of him.

Nearly as impressive as Sam’s courage is the discretion of his Mizzou teammates: he told all of them last August and it remained a secret until now.

2. “A Piece of Crap”

Is that what Jeff Orr said to Marcus Smart to set him off so on Saturday night? Hmm. Never call a player the title of a Neil Young song. The Oklahoma State guard will be suspended for three games for having shoved Texas Tech fan Orr, which is a piece of crap punishment.

Yes, a player should never put his hands on a fan.

However, if Smart had not reacted, the public would never have known what a piece of crap Orr is. So I salute Smart for his action and for lifting the veil of anonymity off a 50-year old man who would behave that way. Did Smart punch him or hurt him badly? No. Was it a spur-of-the-moment reaction? Yes. And did it ultimately serve a greater purpose, which I admit was never Smart’s intent? Yes. Yes, it did. It let every jerk-face middle-aged fan in America know that in the age of social media you may do as much damage to yourself by behaving like an ass as you’d hoped to do to the player.

I’m a little a lot disappointed in Travis Ford. The Okie State presser appeared to send a zero tolerance message out about what Smart did, even to the point of Smart’s own statement. First, if Orr said anything racially motivated and everyone is agreeing to keep that hush-hush, that would be beyond sad. But second, even if those are the words he actually said, I wish Ford would have stood up for his player and asked publicly why Orr said what he said. And, as a man in his fifties, did he look in the mirror and wonder how his priorities got so skewed?  Ford whiffed on a valuable moment to alter the paradigm –and to come to his best player’s defense, and not because Smart means so much to the program but because, truly, Smart was not the villain here.

I wonder if Travis Ford did not lose his team forever this weekend.

Smart will return to action on Feb. 22 for Oklahoma State’s home game versus….Texas Tech.

3. Deep Sixers

Midway through the third quarter of the Philadelphia 76ers-Los Angeles Clippers contest last night at Staples Center, the score was 89-33 in favor of the Clips. Ouch. The Clips, with Chris Paul back in the lineup, opened the game on a 13-0 run and led 46-15 after one quarter. They went on a 16-0 run in the third quarter.

The final score: 123-78, which isn’t even the worst loss in Sixer history. The 9-73 Sixers of 1972-73 lost by 48 to the New York Knicks, who won the NBA Finals that season.

The Sixers shot 3 of 27 from beyond the arc. They did, however, shoot 21 of 25 (84%) from the free throw line. Accentuate the positive.

4. True Detective Becomes The Wire

Episode 4 of True Detective was all about Rust Cohle going narco in order to discover the whereabouts of Reginald Ladoux. Meanwhile, he’s also reluctantly playing the role of marriage counselor, although as he reminds Marty and Maggie more than once, “This is none of my (bleepin’) business.” The best moment? When Hart, frustrated that he cannot gain any sympathy traction with his partner, finally says, “You’re the Michael Jordan of being a sonofabitch.”

Oh, and I’m fairly certain that was series creator Nic Pizzolatto tending bar at the strip club.

By the way, notice the tracking shot of Rust in the episode’s finale. How the camera never leaves him from the drug den all through the neighborhood until he gets into the getaway car driven by Marty. All shot at night. In a rough neighborhood. Appreciate how difficult that was to film, how choreographed it needed to be, and how just one wrong move cancels the shot. This is television that keeps going above and beyond.

Per usual, True Detective blends painfully honest moments –Rust discussing the illusion of long-term monogamy with Maggie –with subtle humor. As Rust leaves the evidence room having pilfered some cocaine, he says, “They really need to work on this system.”

Meanwhile on The Walking Dead, which had its post-hiatus premiere last night, we got a lot of Carl doing the “I’m old enough to drive the car” schtick. I’m growing a little tired of humans on this show stumbling and then trying to skooch off on their butts from imminent zombiefication. Oh, and how come we always see them foraging for food and water but not for toilet paper? How bad must these people smell by now?

5. Let’s Review Rule No. 1

Yes, “Gravity Always Wins.”

Amber Bellows, 28, died in a Base-jumping accident at Utah’s Zion National Park this weekend when her chute failed to deploy. Bellows and her husband, Clayton Butler, were doing the jump as part of a honeymoon trip. They were married two weeks ago.

James Franco will star as Bellows in the film, which will be titled “Nine Seconds.”

Reserves

Russian speed skater Olga Graf goes Slippery Slope Style on her suit…I was unable to find the full program of Russian 15 year-old Julia Lipnitskaia’s free skate on NBCOlympics.com, which is a shame because it was spectacular. Here’s a snippet.

The Hall

Charter Inductees: Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner

1937:  Tris Speaker, CF; Cy Young, P.

1938: Grover Cleveland Alexander, P; Eddie Collins, 2B

1939:Nap Lajoie, 2B; Joe Jackson, LF

1940: Billy Hamilton, OF; Cap Anson, 1B

1941: Wee Willie Keeler, RF; George Sisler, 1B

1942: Rogers Hornsby, 2B; Pie Traynor, 3B

1943: Mickey Cochrane, C; Frankie Frisch, 2B

1944: Ed Walsh, P; Old Hoss Radbourn, P

1945: Lou Gehrig, 1B; Kid Nichols, P

1946: Ed Delahanty, LF; Lefty O’Doul

1947: Pud Galvin, P; John McGraw, INF

1948: Carl Hubbell, P; Addie Joss, P

1949: Harry Heilman, OF/1B; Monte Ward, P/SS

1950: Cool Papa Bell, CF; Jimmie Foxx, 1B

1951: Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, P; Josh Gibson, C

1952: Paul Waner, RF; Charlie Gehringer, 2B

1953: Mel Ott, RF; Hank Greenberg, 1B

1954: Eddie Plank, P; Dan Brouthers, 1B

1955: “Wahoo” Sam Crawford, OF; John Clarkson, P

1956:

Charles “Chief” Bender, P; 1903-1917, 1925, Athletics, 2 others

Bender’s 212-127 record is not as spectacular as his lifetime ERA of 2.46 and WHIP of 1.113. His numbers were even better in the World Series, where he had nine complete games in his 10 starts, including three in the 1911 World Series, where his ERA was 1.04. Highly adept at stealing signs, Bender would often coach third base on days he did not pitch.

Bill Dickey, C; 1928-1943, 1946, Yankees

One of the greatest hitting catchers who ever played, Dickey batted .313 over the course of his career for a Yankee team that would win eight World Series. He was also an 11-time All-Star and finished with 1,209 RBI. Dickey was the backstop on teams that included some of the greatest players of all time (Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio) and only Mickey Cochrane hit for a higher average (until Joe Mauer came along) amongst catchers.

Remote Patrol

Winter Olympics

NBC 8 p.m.

Women’s luge, women’s ice hockey (USA vs. Switzerland), and America’s sweetheart-in-waiting, Mikaela Shiffrin, in the women’s super-combined downhill. Do yourself a favor and type in “nbcolympics.com” to the url as it livestreams events all day long.